Evaluation of overall course

Well here we are at the end of this C&G in photography course, which to be honest never thought I would get to.

All my images were taken with my Sony DSLR a390, also for some images I used a tripod and photoshop.  My theme was water therefore all my images had water in them or something to do with water.  From the start of the course my theme was always going to be water therefore my ideas didn't change.

When I started this course I wanted to learn the art of taking a good photograph.  I have learnt what techniques to use, eg. using the aperture and shutter speed correctly (I'm impressed I actually took it all in to be honest).  I have also learnt to use my camera on manual now rather than auto and I don't think I would use auto very often now.  I've also discovered that you need a good eye to take a half decent photograph and I do now look at surroundings and situations differently and want to start snapping away.

I do wish now though that I had done the recreational photography course first as I found I spent so much time learning and worrying about how to use 'The Blog' (frustrating at times) and 'Photoshop' (fun, but also frustrating at times) that I didn't spend enough time learning and practising taking photographs (which is what I came to do).  I'm not very good at asking for help and there wasn't enough of Marie to go around, therefore I did struggle a lot of the time and hoped I was doing the right thing.  Although the course content was interesting I did think it was a lot to cram into 16 weeks especially for someone like me who had no knowledge in photography, blogging or photoshop.

I found researching other photographers quite hard to get into at first, but once I searched the Internet I found some images that I loved and therefore found it easy to research.  I found looking at manipulated images really interesting, the time and effort that goes into creating an image like that is just phenomenal.  I would love to at some point be that confident with photoshop and I'm sure with time and practise I could produce some amazing images.  Eric Johansson is by far my favourite photographer, his eye for detail is just great.  I also love the work of Anne Geddes, I eventually want to photograph children therefore her work really inspires me.

I enjoyed working in the studio, playing around with lighting and different poses, I just wish there had been more time for this.  Unfortunately with the strict criteria I found myself concentrating on getting my blog up to date rather than learning new things.

I don't feel at this point I will be going on to do Level 2, purely because I would like to get to know my camera better and learn more about taking pictures without the pressure of assignments and deadlines.